Saturday, April 30, 2016

Camping In Big Sur {Part IV}

Before we jump in to the final installment of our Big Sur adventure (minus the race recap of course), have you read the first three chapters?! I promise they aren't too long or boring (and you do NOT want to miss out on the stunning scenery!), so if you haven't caught up yet, we will wait for you...

Okay, time's up, we've gotta move on. Hopefully we are all on the same page because this train is chugging right out of the station! ALL ABOARD WHO'S COMING ABOARD! {Before I get into this post I must confess, although it is titled "Camping In Big Sur {Part IV}", there is very little camping since we were checking out of our site and heading to a hotel for the night, but "Hoteling in Big Sur {Part I}" just didn't have quite the same ring.}

Saturday morning I woke up earlier than the guys (sense a pattern?!) so decided to head out for an easy two mile shake-out run. The temperatures were a little chillier than I was expecting, but figured it would give me a good idea for what to expect the following morning since the starting line was right out on the main road from where we were currently staying.

The sun breaking through on the Big Sur River

Not often do I get a chance to run amongst the redwoods!

I took the run nice and easy. Even though my only goal for the Big Sur International Marathon was to enjoy the views, I still wanted to set myself up for as much success as possible and try to control my speed and save my legs for Sunday.

Slow and steady wins the race... Or at least finishes it!

I was able to warm up rather quickly (minus my hands, but they are always freezing - #BadCirculation) but reminded myself that if we drove by a Target on the way to the hotel to pop in for a set of hand warmers to throw in my mitts. I cooled down by the fire and eventually woke up the boys so that we could get some breakfast started.

As you can tell, Walt is NOT excited about waking up... But then again, he isn't
excited about much... Other than licking his butt and trying to eat poop...

When you have s'more marshmallows left over you add them
to a morning cup of hot chocolate, DUH!

The hubby loves to get his cooking on while in the woods!

This was actually the first time I had ever needed to take my #FlatCarlee picture AT A CAMPGROUND!

Eventually it was time to pack up the Adventure Mobile and head towards the hotel. Officially check-in wasn't until 3pm but we were hoping we might be able to get in a little earlier so that we could shower prior to heading to the Expo (mostly for everyone else's benefit... we stunk of four day and three nights of truck life and campfire, with a little sweat thrown in for good measure). Well, it was not our lucky day because the hotel was stinkin' strict {pun intended} about their check-in time - LAMESAUCE! So, we decided we'd head to the Expo and hope it was well ventilated.

The expo was easy. You had to visit the Runner's Tent first to pick up your bib and bus ticket (The race is a point-to-point on a one lane highway, so the majority of the runners take buses to their starting line {FYI This race offers like a bazillion and a half race distances so there were quite a few starting lines along the 26.2 mile stretch of road.}.). Then it was over to the Merch/ Vendor Tent to pick up your shirt.

I've gotta be completely honest, race expos aren't my jam. As you know, I am frugal and although many of the vendors are offering great "deals", I never buy anything so just end up high-tailing it out of there. And with my slight self consciousness due to my lack of a shower for three days I wasn't really planning on hanging out. I grabbed my stuff and scooted out (although the town seems rather dog friendly, pets were not allowed in the expo so I had to leave Walt and Ryan meandering around outside).

Before sneaking out completely I had to snap a couple quick pictures by the 'yearbook' sign (a sign with all of the runners' names on it). And while I was trying to find my name I heard a familiar voice! It was Pam and her family! She had just flown in from SoCal and was ready to take on her THIRDBoston 2 Big Sur Challenge! I met her hubby and boys and then we snapped a quick picture before wishing each other well.

This lady is one of the sweetest and speediest ladies I know!

Found it!

Since we still had a little time before the hotel would give us a key we decided to walk around the Fisherman's Wharf a bit (while still trying to take it easy and not be on our legs all day long). We snapped a couple pictures and then decided our grumbling bellies needed to be fed or they might revolt.

Finally it was time for us to check-in, take a shower and do a little relaxing. Since we don't have cable at our house, when we are at a hotel we end up binging on HGTV. We also were able to bring in all of our gear from the car, like our camp mats, sleeping bags, etc so we could roll everything up and get it re-organized for the ride home.

A little before 5pm we decided we'd order some pizza for a carb loading dinner. There was a Pizza My Heart near by (the only other time I had had some was when we were in Santa Cruz a while back visiting a friend) and placed an order for a cheese pizza and some cheese garlic bread (because why not load up on the dairy while we are at it too?!). We decided it would be easiest to just grab it and bring it back to the hotel seeing as we had the wiener dog in tow.

The cheesy bread was my favorite!

Soon enough it was time to set my alarms and hit the hay! It felt weird sleeping in an actual bed (and Walt was a little sketched out by the whole thing since A. he was allowed to sleep in a bed with us and B. he was somewhere he had never been before, but thankfully we had a large bed so we were able to spread out without every one fidgeting and waking the others up), but it was off to dreamland I went {or at least attempted}.